The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1887-08-18
THE PIECE OF BREAD.


The young Duke de Hardimont was
passing some days at AK in Savoy, where
he was causing his famous mare Perichole
who had been broken winded since she
caught chill at the Derby-to take the
waters, when, glancing carelessly over the
paper one morning just after breakfast.
he read there the news of the disaster of
Richshoffen.
He emptied his glass of Chartreuse,
laid his napkin down on the restaurant
table, gave his valet orders to pack his
trunks, took the express two hours later
for Paris and hurried to the recruiting
office for the purpose of enlisting in
regiment of the line.
Now, though the Duke de Hardimont
had led the enervating life of a petit creve
this was the term in mode at that time
from 10 to %, though he had done his
best to degrade his nature in the stables
of the race course and in the boudoirS
of the opera singers, yet there were &C.
casions on which he could not forget
that Enguerraud de Hardimont died of
the plague at Tunis on the same day with
st. Louis, that Jean de HarGmont
commanded the Great Companies under
Du Gueschu, and that Francois Henri
de Hardimont was killed while making
a charge with Maison Rouge at Fonte
noy. However enervating his scandalous
and senseless amours with Lucy Violette,
the prima donna of the Nudites Paris
iennes, yet when the young duke learned
that battle had been lost by the French
on French soil, he felt the blood mount to
his forehead, and experienced for the mo-
ment horrible sensation. as if he had
just received a slap in the face.
Thus it was that in the early part of
November, of 1870, having re-entered
Paris with his regiment, which formed
part of the corps of Winery, Henri de
Hardimont, fusilier, third man Of the
second line, and member Of the Jockey
club, formed, with his company, part Of
the main guard in front of the redoubt Of
Hautes Bruyeres, a position fortified in
haste and protected by the cannon OF the
fort of Bicetre.
The scene was desolate one-a road
fanked by stunted trees and broken up by
muddy by paths traversing the sickly
looking fields of the suburbs, and on one
side of this road a deserted inn, an inn
with arbors, of which the soldiers had
made their guard house. An engagement
the grape shot had cut asunder several
of the saplings by the roadside, and they
all bore on their bark the white scars left
by the shot. As to the house itself, its
ASPECT made one shudder; the roof had
been sunk in by shell, and the walls, of
the color of muddy wine, looked as if
they had been painted with blood. The
empty arbors, rooted by network of dark
branches; the casks turned bottom up
ward, the swing, the wet cords Of which
creaked in the wind, and the words over
the door defaced by balls-"Private rooms:
Vermouth: Wine 60 centimes litre"-
which served as frame to the picture Of
a dead rabbit with two billiard cues crossed
and tied together by ribbon underneath,
all recalled with cruel irony the Sunday
pleasures of the people in days gone by.
And overhead dreary winter sky, across
which were passing large leaden clouds
a sky low, gloomy and threatening,
At the door of the inn the young duke
stood motionless, his chassepot slung
across his shoulder, his kepe drawn over
his eyes, his benumbed hands thrust into
the pockets of his red trousers, shivering
inside his sheep skin cloak. He had given
himself up to gloomy meditation, the
soldier of defeat, and was watching with
heartbroken glance the line of hills fading
away in the mist, above which arose, in
rapid succession, accompanied each time
by defamation, the white puffs of smoke
of the Krupp cannon.
All at once he was conscious of sensa-
ton of hunger. He knelt down on one
knee and took from his knapsaek, which
rested against the wall beside him, q
large piece of ammunition bread, then, as
he had lost his knife, he broke it off, bit
by bit, with his teeth, and ate it slowly
But after few mouthfuls he had had
enough; the bread was hard and had a
bitter taste. And there would be no
fresh bread until to-morrow's distribution,
and then ONLY in case the commissariat
should think at to distribute it. The pro-
fession was, in truth, at times rather
rough one; and all at once there came to
mind the thought of what he used to call
Ais Aygienic breakfasts, when, on the
morning after q supper of too stimula-
ting character. he would sit opposite a
window on the ground floor of the Cafe
Anglais, and order-good heavens the
merest trifie-an omelette with asparagus,
and the head waiter, knowing his habits,
would place on the table slender bottle
of old Seville, resting softly in basket,
and uncork it carefully. Deuce take it!
That was pleasant time after all, and he
would never be able to accustom himself
to this miserable fare.
Aud in q moment of Impotence the
young man flung the rest OF the piece of
bread he had been eating in the mud.
At the same instant a private of the line
came out of the ruin; he stopped down,
picked up the piece OF bread, withdrew
few steps, wiped the mud from If wtth his
sleeve, and began to deyour it eagerly.
Henri de Hardimont was already ashamed
of his action, and gazed with pity at the
poor devil who had given proof of so good
an appetite. He was tall and loose built
youth with feversh eyes and beard that
betrayed a recent sOjourn in the hospital,
and so thin that his shoulder blades were
sharply defined through the cloth Of his
well worn cape.
'You seem to be very hungry, COM
rade, " said the duke, approaching the sol
der.
"As you see, responded the latter, with
his mouth full.
Forgive me, then; If had known you
would like to eat it, 1 should not have
thrown away my bread"
'sThere is no harm DONE" replied the
soldier, 81 am not so very delicate in my
tastes.''
mo matter" said the nobleman; "what
/ did was wrong, and reproach myself
for it. But ! do not want you to take
away with you bad opinion of me, and
as have some old cognac in my canteen
--parbleu, we will drink it together"
The man had finished eating. The duke
and he each took a swallow of brandy in
turn-the acquaintance was made,
s'And you are Called" said the SOL
dier.
''Hardimont, responded the duke, sup
pressing his title and the prefix to his
name. "And your
"Jean Victor. have only recently joined
the comparative lust left the ambu.